Down payment是什么意思？

Down payment（也称为downpayment），中文意思是“首付款”。Wikipedia对down payment的英文解释如下：

Down payment (or downpayment) is a payment used in the context of the purchase of expensive items such as a car and a house, whereby the payment is the initial upfront portion of the total amount due and it is usually given in cash at the time of finalizing the transaction. A loan or the amount in cash is then required to make the full payment.
Downpayment是在购买昂贵物品（如：车、房）时的一种付款，该款项是总应付款的最初直接支付部分，且常采用现金支付。之后，可通过贷款、或现金方式完成剩余全部款项的支付。

Investopedia进一步指出：The payment typically represents only a percentage of the full purchase price; in some cases it is not refundable if the deal falls through. 首付款通常以总价款的百分比形式计算。某些情形下，若交易未能达成，该款项不予退还。

For example, because houses are extremely expensive assets, home buyers typically pay down payments that equal 5-25% of the total value of a home. The remaining 75-95% of the price will be covered by a bank or other financial institutions through a mortgage loan.
在美国，购房者通常需支付房屋总价的5-25%（Bankrate.com甚至指出，首付百分比最低可达到3-3.5%），剩余的75-95%则通过银行或其他金融机构以住房抵押贷款（或称按揭贷款：mortgage loan）的方式偿还。

支付首付款的英语说法是：make down payment，或者put down…on…。美国人在口语中常常把down payment简化为put down，你可能会听到这样的交谈：“Alex put 20 percent down on the house.”意思等同于：“Alex made a 20 percent down payment.”（Alex交了20%的首付。）也可以说：I would try to put down at least $7,500 if possible. （可能的话，我愿意交7500美元的首付。）